Yeah, what he said…
I picked out some choice quotes from Bill Bernbach. I have often referenced these and thought I’d list out some of my favorites. It is a testament to Bill that even in the this digital age of tweeting and facey paging that this sentiments still ring true, and are as relevant today as the day they where uttered.
Enjoy, I hope you find your favorite.
“A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know
it’s bad.”
“Rules are what the artist breaks; the memorable never emerged from a formula.”
“If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic.”
“Is creativity some obscure, esoteric art form? Not on your life. It’s the most practical thing
a businessman can employ.”
“It’s not just what you say that stirs people. It’s the way that you say it.”
“Merely to let your imagination run riot, to dream unrelated dreams, to indulge in graphic
acrobatics and verbal gymnastics in NOT being creative. The creative person had
harnessed his imagination. He has disciplined it so that every thought, every idea, every
word he puts down, every line he draws, every light and shadow in every photograph he
takes, makes more vivid, more believable, more persuasive the original theme or product
advantage he has decided he must convey.”
“Surely it is better to state our proposition with the kind of talent that will touch and move the
reader and viewer than to bore them to death with the ordinary.”
“You can get attention and really make people resent you if you do it with an unrelated
gimmick. They won’t like you for that.”
“You can have everybody coming in on time, everybody leaving on time, all work finished on
the due date, and still have a lousy ad, and fail.”
“I can put down on a page a picture of a man crying, and it’s just a picture of a man crying.
Or I can put him down in such a way as to make you want to cry. The difference is artistrythe
intangible thing that business distrusts.”
“Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten.”
“Imitation can be commercial suicide.”
“Just because your ad looks good is no insurance that it will get looked at. How many
people do you know who are impeccably groomed … but dull?”
“We are so busy measuring public opinion that we forget we can mold it. We are so busy
listening to statistics we forget we can create them.”
“I warn you against believing that advertising is a science.”
“Know your product inside and out before you start working. And relate that knowledge to
the consumer’s needs.”
“No matter how skillful you are, you can’t invent a product advantage that doesn’t exist. And
if you do, and it’s just a gimmick, it’s going to fall apart anyway.”
“The truth isn’t the truth until people believe you, and they can’t believe you if they don’t
know what you’re saying, and they can’t know what you’re saying if they don’t listen to you,
and they won’t listen to you if you’re not interesting, and you won’t be interesting unless you
say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.”
“Forget words like ‘hard sell’ and ‘soft sell.’ That will only confuse you. Just be sure your
advertising is saying something with substance, something that will inform and serve the
consumer, and be sure you’re saying it like it’s never been said before.”
“Adapt your techniques to an idea, not an idea to your techniques.”
“Playing it safe can be the most dangerous thing in the world, because you’re presenting
people with an idea they’ve seen before, and you won’t have impact.”
“There are few things more destructive than an unsound idea persuasively expressed.”
“To succeed an ad (or a person or product for that matter) must establish its own unique
personality, or it will never be noticed.”
“Word of mouth is the best medium of all.”
“You cannot sell a man who isn’t listening.”
“Getting a product known isn’t the answer. Getting it WANTED is the answer. Some of the
best known product names have failed.”
“The men who are going to be in business tomorrow are the men who understand that the
future, as always, belongs to the brave.”
“A great talent, sailing in the wrong direction will, like the lost pilot breaking the speed
record, reach the wrong destination all the more quickly.”